TO:	OEMA Members
FROM:	OEMA E-Board Members Rose Gentry, Mike Mumaw, Mary Davis and Patty Hopkins
SUBJECT:	International Association of Emergency Managers (IAEM) Conference November 12-14, 2007 – Reno, Nevada

OEMA sponsors two board members each year to attend the IAEM conference and bring back information about what was presented. This year it was Past President Rose Gentry and Treasurer Patty Hopkins. In addition, President Mike Mumaw and Secretary Mary Davis attended. Oregon had a strong showing this year with the four Board members attending, plus; Perry Hopkins, Doug Hormann, Andre Leduc, John McIlvain, Wayne Stinson, Ken Murphy, Keith Berkery, Tracy Cleys, Sue Patterson and Pascal Schuback.

There was a Region 10 Caucus on Sunday afternoon prior to the conference and 10 Oregon representatives attended this meeting including the four E-board members, we introduced ourselves, organization and OEMA position. It was very evident that the other attending agencies and associations were appreciative that OEMA had such a strong showing. During the caucus, we did discuss the joint Washington and Oregon Association conference. Washington is looking forward to this. We did discuss inviting Alaska and Idaho associations to attend. This will be in September of 2009 at Salishan Spa and Golf Resort in Gleneden Beach, Oregon.

We also found out at the Region 10 Caucus who will represent Oregon on the new FEMA Region 10 Regional Advisory Council (RAC). The representatives from Oregon are Major General Raymond F. Rees, Oregon Military Department; Ken Murphy, Director of Oregon Emergency Management; Mike Harryman, Director, Preparedness Division, Oregon Public Health; Bob Leopold, Director, Oregon Emergency Medical Services; and Tony Hyde, Columbia County Commissioner.

Highlights from the Conference:

Bob Furh, CBCP, Historical Perspectives, gave an entertaining presentation called “The Titanic: Emergency Management Lessons Learned”. There was spirited discussion among Oregon representatives as to whether all of his facts were correct, but what was most important is that from every incident no matter in what time, lessons are learned. The two big issues that were brought up include Command and Control and Lack of Training which sound familiar to all of us.

There were some presentations on recovery issues from Hurricane Katrina, one of the presentations focused more on Mississippi and some of the alternate methods of emergency housing that are now in place called “Mississippi Alternate Housing Program”. They are looking at modular units to include Park Model & Mississippi Cottage, Green House and Modular Townhouse to replace trailers being brought in. Other issues that were of interest were cultural differences that needed to be addressed. An example was a Vietnamese community that didn’t trust banks and kept their money in their houses, so they lost their houses and all of their funds. It brought up thoughts on how well we know our cultures and what we might need to assist with.

A presentation called “A Seismologist Look at Hurricane Katrina” was extremely good. It was presented by Dr. Lucille Jones, Chief Scientist, Multi Hazards Demonstration Project for Southern California, U.S. Geological Survey. She talked about a how a large event affected all regions and states around a disaster. She talked of the economic challenge of a devastated Southern California and how it could affect economy world wide. The secondary failures that turn disasters into catastrophic events. She had one particular statement that she made that said “Preparing for Moderate Events do not Prepare you for Catastrophic Events”. She mentioned a couple of preparedness programs that are going on. Earthquake Alliance “Dare to Prepare” and Red Cross with a new brochure “Shift Happens”. There is a program that California is working on for 2008 called the “Shake Out Program”. There was also a website for putting down your roots in Earthquake Country located at www.earthquakecountry.info.

Teamwork in Crisis: The Story of Flight 232. If you have never heard this presentation, it is an amazing story of plans in place and human courage above and beyond and pure survival. How in 1989 how multiple failures left an airplane marginally controllable. The Captain that tells this story talked about how there were factors that assisted with the response. These included: luck, communications, preparedness, following protocols, (missed one, did anyone else take notes) and keeping calm.

Last but not least there were very many vendors and your E-board talked with numerous vendors about our conference. With any luck, we will see the addition of new vendors at our Spring Conference at Sun River on April 21-24, 2008.

The 2008 IAEM conference will be November 15-20 in Kansas City (Overland Park), Kansas.